Appliance Update Process

Updating your Wise Owl Legal Appliance is very important. It allows for bug fixes, various improvements based on feedback from the Wise Owl community and allows you to access new features.

If you are responsible for administering a Wise Owl Appliance or applying updates, you must read this page carefully, in its entirety. You must also familiarise yourself with the risks associated with updates. While Wise Owl has tried to make the update process as smooth as possible, some degree of planning and understanding is required for Appliance administrators. You can also read the technical detail of the update process if you wish, however, it is not required.

If Wise Owl is managing updates for you or is hosting your Appliance (ie: you do not have a physical Wise Owl Appliance in your office), you should read the Managed Updates page. You can read this page to know what happens behind the scenes (this is the same procedure Wise Owl Technicians follow).

Update Process

Recommended Process For Updating Your Appliance.

The recommended update process is detailed below. You should follow this unless directed otherwise by a Wise Owl Technician.

1. An update is published by Wise Owl. 

2. Appliances automatically check for new updates each night. If a new version is found, it is automatically downloaded.

   1. You can trigger the same update check on the About page on demand. This page can be accessed by scrolling to the bottom of the screen and clicking "About Wise Owl Legal" on the bottom left

   2. Notifications will appear on Appliances indicating a new version is available.

3. You should click the About page and read the release notes for the update.

4. Based on the release notes, plan a time to install the update. You should allow a minimum of 30 minutes down time for minor updates and 1 hour for major updates.

5. Notify users of the update time and expected down time.

6. At the appropriate time, go to the About page and install the update.

   1. You can only install updates when the Appliance has Internet access; updates will fail otherwise.

   2. You will be required to follow a check list (similar to this one) before installation.

   3. You will have to state your understanding of the risks of updating your Appliance.

7. Wait while the update is applied. Typically, this will take 10-15 minutes.

   1. You will receive emails telling you the updater status. The appliance will display a maintenance page while updates are applied.

8. When the update completes, log back into your Appliance and test it works correctly.

   1. You should test all day-to-day operations. Wise Owl recommends several contacts, matters and documents dedicated to testing purposes on any Appliance.

9. Notify users that the Appliance is available for use.

Questions and Answers

What is the difference between major and minor releases?

Update release notes will classify certain updates as "major". All others are "minor".

Major releases contain entirely new features and major data additions or changes. They are higher risk due to more changes, particularly data changes.
You may wish to wait for a few weeks and see what the community reaction is, plan a test deployment or simply allow additional downtime for the update.

Minor releases contain bug fixes, small refinements and only trivial data changes. They are low risk due to minimal data changes. Typically, little additional testing or planning needs to be done for these.

How Often Are Releases Made?

Typically, there is a new release each month with a variety of minor improvements and bug fixes. Larger releases with significant new features occur every 3-6 months, depending on the nature of the feature.

If more critical bugs are found, releases may occur outside this normal cycle. These are reserved for critical security issues, the possibility of data loss and bugs that prevent the day-to-day usage of Wise Owl Legal.

What is a Critical Update?

Critical updates contain fixes to bugs which affect prevent day-to-day operation of Wise Owl Legal, security vulnerabilities (which may allow unauthorised people to access your Appliance) or bugs that may lead to data loss. You should apply critical updates as soon as possible due to the severity of the errors they fix.